Our book club gathered last week to pick our next slate of books. There are six members, and we each present a list of 5 books we have chosen for the book club’s consideration. The members then each vote on two of our books, votes are counted, and the high counts join the list. After all the books are chosen, we assign books to particular months. We try to match shorter books with months where we are busier, for instance. And similar books get separated across the months, as are the two urban garden books on this slate of books.
Because we are all very different people, we bring different books to the table for consideration. I wind up reading books I would not choose on my own, and that’s usually a really good thing for me. It’s also interesting to see who does or does not like a book–interesting discussions reveal aspects of a book we might not have considered on our own.
Book Club Reading List 2011-2010
2011
July: THE RED THREAD, Nicholas Jose–two pairs of lovers across the centuries, set in Shanghai
August: MY EMPIRE OF DIRT, Manny Howard–800 square-foot backyard “farm” in Brooklyn changes Howard’s life when he decides to try to eat out of it for one month.
September: CUTTING FOR STONE, Abraham Verghese–Twin brothers (Indian/British) share a love for medicine. Novel moves back and forth from Ethiopia and New York.
October: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Harper Lee–now classic tale of racism.
November: THE HARE WITH THE AMBER EYES, Edmund de Waal–family memoir revolving around the inheritance of a collection of ornamental Japanese carvings known as netsuke.
December: MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND, Helen Semonsen–in a small English village, Pettigrew values the quiet life and honor, duty, decorum, but begins a friendship with Jasmina Ali, a Pakistani shopkeeper, which results in culture clashes and a funny, barbed, and winsome book.
2012
January: THE SWEET LIFE IN PARIS, David Lebovitz–cookbook author and Chez Panisse pastry chef Lebovitz gathers some of his best stories about Paris in this hilarious book.
February: FARM CITY, Novella Carpenter–in a ghetto in Oakland, CA, Carpenter begins farming a vacant lot next to her apartment. As she grows bolder, she brings in bees and animals: chickens, rabbits, and pigs.
March: THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE, Monique Roffey–Trinidad, an unforgettable love story that is brimming with passion and politics.
April: SILK, Allesandro Baricco–powerful and erotic tale that reveals how one man’s desire threatens to ruin his life.
May: LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN, Colum McCann–portrait of NYCity, 1974 ; winner, National Book Award, reviewed as “an emotional tour de force.”
June: LYRICS ALLEY, Leila Aboulela–Egypt and Sudan, a warm, well-crafted story that foregrounds romantic love and the search for spirituality and meaning.
Louisa Enright's Blog 